West Virginia University researchers conducted the on-road testing in May 2014 that prompted the California Air Resources Board to look into Volkswagen. Two Volkswagen cars with the 2-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder diesel engine were subjected to emissions testing. When tested on the road, the researchers discovered that some cars produce over 40 times the legal amount of nitrogen oxides.
Arvind Thiruvengadam, West Virginia University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions
In This Article...
Who learned of the Volkswagen emissions scandal?
Dieselgate, a scandal involving the Volkswagen Auto Group, caused dominoes to fall across the whole industry when it was revealed that the Volkswagen Auto Group had fabricated its diesel emissions. Regulators launched investigations into numerous businesses throughout the world, many of which were later found to have installed similar “defeat devices” in their diesel vehicles; but, Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scheme continued to be the most widespread. The scandal ultimately cost Volkswagen and its affiliates many billions of dollars and damaged the standing of a once-reputable carmaker.
And none of it would have been possible without the labor of an engineer by the name of Hemanth Kappanna, who, according to the New York Times, was fired from General Motors earlier this year.
A study conducted in 2013 by Kappanna and other graduate students at West Virginia University revealed diesel Volkswagens polluted more than claimed in actual driving situations. At a conference where members of CARB and the EPA were present in 2014, they presented their findings. Kappanna entered the field at the end of 2014 while investigations grew into the scandal whose outcomes are known today, working for GM in a position that would place him in command of emissions controls.
But Kappanna’s employment wasn’t guaranteed. When GM decided that automatic driving and electric cars were the future of transportation, it became clear that it would require money to make these new technologies a reality. This money could be easily raised by streamlining GM’s operations. The answer is to discontinue unprofitable models, shut down aging plants, and lay off thousands of employees. One of them was named Kappanna.
The now-41-year-old Kappanna told NYT, “They let me go.” Kappanna struggled to find work during his two months of paid time off because the automobile business is predicted to slow down in the next years. When the clock ran out, all Kappanna had left was a ticket back to India. He hypothesizes that a perceived bias in favor of regulators may have played a role in his job loss.
“They might have perceived me as biased, for sure. I honestly can’t say “Kappanna said. The action was criticized by Kappanna’s coworkers as “one of those stupid decisions taken to match the statistics,” even though GM has disputed that Kappanna’s removal was related to his history of disclosing Dieselgate.
Kappanna recalled his coworkers saying that the leadership’s actions were “absolutely incorrect.”
Who exposed Volkswagen’s deception?
Hemanth Kappanna, a 41-year-old Indian-born engineer employed by General Motors, was recently relieved of his responsibility for liaising with the EPA on the American automaker’s emissions technology. He was only one of about 4,000 GM employees that the business let go as part of a “strategic transition,” as it put it.
He wasn’t just any firm asset, though. Looking into Kappanna’s past reveals that he was a genuine hero who managed to alter the course of automotive history. How? He was in charge of making the world aware of Volkswagen’s emissions crisis.
The incident occurred in 2013, when Kappanna was a member of a small group of engineering students at West Virginia University in Morgantown, a renowned academic institution for its work on car emissions. Kappanna discovered a technique that would later expose the lie that Volkswagen had been telling the world about the emissions from its vehicles while attempting to complete a grant application from the International Council on Clean Transportation that had been given to him by the director of his program.
The university had intended to come up with a method of measuring the emissions of moving automobiles. All of the emission testing were conducted at the time in garages using specialized equipment because it was found to be more simpler than analyzing the emissions from a moving car. For the fieldwork, Marc Besch (Switzerland) and Arvind Thiruvengadam (India), two of Kappanna’s fellow graduating students, were selected.
Who reported Volkswagen to authorities?
The automotive industry was altered by Hemanth Kappanna’s research. However, GM fired the person who revealed Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal this year.
In sweltering Bengaluru’s green suburbs, Dr. Hemanth Kappanna, 41, is ready to burn off some calories on this hot midsummer day. “I never played sports. I used to do yoga in the US. I can now run 10 kilometers in one hour, he claims. The former General Motors (GM) employee began endurance training at Cubbon Park, a spit of lush land in the center of the city, after arriving back in India in May of this year.
Kappanna then discusses the events leading up to his abrupt departure from the Detroit-based automaker, where he worked from December 2014 until his participation in a West Virginia University research analyzing engine emissions. “I don’t feel guilty. He says in a phone interview with ETPanache that if he could go back in time, he wouldn’t change a thing. In place of laboratory studies on consumer vehicle engines, Kappanna and his colleagues at West Virginia University (WVU) conducted road tests in 2014 utilizing a portable emission testing system. Their findings paved the door for stricter pollution control standards by upsetting the cozy equilibrium between Big Auto and the regulatory bodies.
VW was dragged into the confessional. German company acknowledged utilizing “defeat devices that diesel automobiles use to tamper with pollution test results. Forbes said that the corporation was had to pay fines totaling more than $25 billion.
In December 2017, Oliver Schmidt, the general manager in charge of VW’s Michigan engineering and environmental division, received a seven-year prison term. Later, some of GM’s own goods were questioned. Just over a year after Schmidt’s imprisonment, on February 4, 2019, Kappanna was let off by GM as part of a restructuring “corporate reorganization
When was Volkswagen discovered?
On September 3, Volkswagen finally comes clean with the EPA and the CARB about the strategy. The government presented the corporation with proof of the software fraud. The business admits to cheating on the tests after running out of defenses.
Why did the Volkswagen crisis occur?
Volkswagen misrepresented the diesel vehicles for years in order to obtain EPA and CARB certifications that permitted the vehicles to be marketed in the U.S. Volkswagen knew that the diesel vehicles would dodge U.S. emissions rules. Volkswagen hesitated until authorities threatened to withdraw approval when EPA and CARB eventually started to catch on.
In what ways did Volkswagen falsify its emissions tests?
In order to pass an emissions test and seem to be a low-emission vehicle, Volkswagen added software that altered the engine’s operation. the remaining time? The vehicles were spewing harmful pollutants at rates up to 150 times higher than those of a typical vehicle.
How long did Volkswagen engage in fraud?
After five years, the Volkswagen emissions-cheating scandal appears to be among the most expensive corporate scandals ever. Just over five years after the scandal began, a new former top Volkswagen official was put on trial, and the case is far from over.
What does VW stand for?
1973 control panel for evaluation and development at the EPA’s Motor Vehicle Test Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Any motor vehicle hardware, software, or design that obstructs or disables emissions controls during actual driving situations constitutes a defeat device, even if the vehicle has passed formal emissions testing.
[1][2] The phrase is used to describe anything that inhibits an emissions control system from operating in both the US Clean Air Act and European Union rules, and it applies equally to power plants and other sources of air pollution as it does to automobiles. [1] [2][3]
Numerous enforcement proceedings have been launched by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against automakers and other businesses who have installed or deployed defeat devices, whether on purpose, accidentally, or due to carelessness. If aftermarket components or software disable or circumvent an automobile’s emissions controls, such as changed exhaust systems or chip tuning goods and services, they are referred to as defeat devices. [3]
How was the Volkswagen scandal handled?
VW has taken action to regain consumer confidence. For instance, they recalled cars and gave their American owners a $1,000 goodwill package. As a result of the controversy, they decided to reduce executive salary. VW will have to deal with this loss of goodwill for years to come, even with incentives.
What were the lies Volkswagen told?
Volkswagen VOW, +3.21% revealed in that incident that around 11 million diesel vehicles globally had the false software installed. The software boosted engine performance while driving normally while increasing nitrogen oxide emissions when the cars were on a test stand.
Anyone took part in the Volkswagen scandal?
Chancellor Angela Merkel invites the heads of the nation’s most significant car companies to her chancellery to discuss how the industry could adapt to impending changes in the mobility sector. This comes after a series of meetings with high-profile representatives of the auto industry in recent years to address the fallout of the so-called dieselgate scandal for the German auto industry.
In 57 German cities, according to the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), air pollution levels in 2018 surpassed European norms, primarily because of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions from vehicle emissions. The UBA reports that from 65 the year prior, fewer cities now have pollution levels above the cutoff of 40 micrograms per cubic meter. According to UBA President Maria Krautzberger, the current actions are insufficient to preserve public health by adhering to the EU-limit value for NO2 in the yearly average.
A week after Munich prosecutors searched his home, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler is detained on suspicion that he was involved in the Volkswagen (VW) Group’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. Stadler has been the CEO of Audi since 2007 and a member of the VW Group board since 2010.
Has anyone been imprisoned as a result of the Volkswagen scandal?
When he was detained on suspicions connected to the automaker’s diesel-emissions issue, Schmidt served as VW’s point of contact with American regulators.
Oliver Schmidt, a former official of the Volkswagen Group whose arrest in 2017 at the Miami airport made headlines across the world, was freed from prison after serving almost half of his sentence for the charges he faced in the diesel-emissions crisis.
Schmidt was granted parole on Wednesday, according to a decision made by a court in the German city of Lneburg, according to his attorney Alexander Saettele. Schmidt, 52, was given a seven-year sentence by a U.S. court but was allowed to return home in November to complete his sentence there.
Volkswagen is still plagued by the diesel problem that American regulators revealed in September 2015. The biggest automaker in the world has spent at least 32 billion euros ($38.7 billion) manipulating engines to make it appear that they might pass U.S. emissions tests. Disgruntled investor and customer lawsuits are expected to last for years.
When Schmidt was detained at the Miami airport in January 2017 while returning from a trip, he served as VW’s point of contact with American inspectors. Shock waves from his arrest reverberated throughout corporate Germany.
In Germany, prisoners are eligible for release after completing two thirds of their sentence. Although it is uncommon, first-time offenders who have shown good behavior and are thought unlikely to commit crimes again may be given parole after serving only half the sentence.